Raleigh, NC – With the effort to reopen schools across North Carolina, teachers are receiving a higher priority for being vaccinated against coronavirus.
Governor Roy Cooper said on Wednesday that all staff at the K-12 school and anyone working at the daycare center will be eligible for vaccination starting February 24. All other “essential” frontline workers, such as police, fire and grocery workers, will have to wait until March 10 to start vaccinating.
The state has administered nearly 1.5 million injections in the past two months, meaning that about 10.6% of state residents have taken at least one dose of the two-dose regimen. About 3.5 percent of the state is fully vaccinated.
The Group 3 subdivision on the state’s vaccination priority list is necessary, the governor said, to balance the limited vaccine supply with the large number of frontline workers in the state.
North Carolina receives only 150,000 doses of the vaccine each week from the federal government, and the state has about 240,000 public school employees.
Previously, state officials said they had no plans to split Group 3 into smaller units and to prioritize some professions over others. But Cooper said that putting teachers in front of Group 3 was simply pragmatic.
“There has been concern about all these essential frontline workers in a large group, in Group 3, suddenly colliding with the system, that this would be problematic,” he said. “Starting with a smaller number of essential frontline workers in Group 3 helps providers to streamline vaccine delivery.”
Group 3 may be subdivided in the coming weeks, depending on the flow of vaccine to the state, the governor said.
“This category of essential worker is much more complicated because many people are doing very important frontline jobs,” he said. “THE [state’s] health team will look … if they can open all [Group 3] categories or whether they have to go to another subpart. “
Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said the prospect of a third vaccine being approved in the coming weeks could allow most of Group 3 to be eligible at the same time, without breaking other professions separately. .
“We really have to look at the supply to meet the demand that exists,” said Cohen.
Micki McCarthy, manager of the Weaver Street Market in Raleigh, said his team is excited to know that they will soon be eligible for vaccination.
“It’s all the buzz,” said McCarthy with a laugh. “It will give us peace of mind to know that we serve our community every day, without fear of coming into contact with the virus.”
Cooper and Cohen have repeatedly emphasized that research has shown that schools can reopen safely if masks and other safety protocols are followed. Therefore, vaccinating teachers and other school staff is not a prerequisite for reopening, they said.
“Schools can safely put students back in the classroom now, and that’s what I want them to do,” said Cooper.
But teachers have stepped back in recent days, saying they don’t want to put themselves and their families at risk of contracting COVID-19.
“Yes, the data shows that transmission is low in schools, but you can still transmit in schools,” said Michelle Burton, primary school librarian and president of the Durham Association of Educators.
Burton’s group was one of many educational organizations lobbying for higher vaccination priority for school personnel.
Burton lives with his elderly father, who has diabetes, and she said she is afraid to infect him. Being vaccinated will increase protection for him as well as for her, she said.
She said that those who think teachers just don’t want to go back to schools are wrong.
“We want to teach our students. We want to be with them. We want to see their faces, ”she said. “But the fact is, we just want to make sure that we are safe and we want to protect the safety of our students and colleagues that we work with every day.”
The announcement of the schedule to vaccinate educators, followed by other frontline officials, gives counties and health professionals two more weeks to vaccinate as many people as possible in Group 1 (health professionals) and Group 2 (people with 65 or older) before the next group begins, the governor said.
Vaccination of people 65 and older is “critical,” he said, noting that this age group accounts for more than 80 percent of North Carolina-related deaths.
The two-week notice also gives school districts and employers time to develop vaccination plans. Cohen said providers can go to a school or workplace to administer vaccines, or they can designate a specific day of the week when only educators or other frontline employees can receive vaccines. The state’s vaccination tracking system will soon allow employers to upload employee information to pre-register them, she said.
Cohen warned, however, that the February 24 and March 10 eligibility dates do not necessarily mean that people will start receiving vaccines at that time. Some counties have long waiting lists for people in Group 1 or Group 2 still waiting for their vaccines – the Wake County list has more than 80,000 people, for example – so teachers and other frontline staff will have to wait their turn, she said.
“Just being considered a priority and that’s just the first step, the right step to take,” said Burton.
Laura Leslie, head of the WRAL Capitol Office, and WRAL anchor / reporter Adam Owens contributed to this report.